“The disadvantaged psychological scene”: Educational experiences of women in early Canadian psychology.

Abstract

This article discusses three distinct patterns that characterise the educational experiences of prominent women psychologists who obtained their PhDs in Canada prior to the 1950s. First, these women obtained their PhDs in psychology in Central Canadian universities versus universities in Western or Eastern Canada. Second, these women made a later entrance into the field of psychology compared with the early prominent women psychologists in the United States. Finally, most of the prominent women in early Canadian psychology did not encounter barriers to attaining their PhDs. This article provides a necessary first step toward constructing a more complete history of women in early Canadian psychology.Understanding the place of women in psychology has become an enduring feature of current historiographies of psychology (e.g., Scarborough & Furomoto, 1987). Women, who were the invisible "other" in the early years of the discipline, are now recovered in recent histories and enshrined alongside their better-known male counterparts as cofounders of psychology. In contemporary psychology, women now find themselves the subject of an entirely different discourse, the "feminization of psychology," with subtle voices worrying about what the absence of men might mean for the "status" or "prestige" of the discipline. By their presence as well as their absence, women figure as a "problem" to be solved. Hence, histories of women in psychology, beyond restoring a semblance of honesty to the early record, also provide insight into psychology's historical struggle with gender. To date, however, research on the history of women in psychology has primarily focused on women in early American psychology.

Reconstructing the experiences of first generation women in Canadian psychology.

“…As Keates and Stam (2009) noted, this difference reflects the later institutionalization of psychology in Canada relative to that of the United States. This institutionalization was related to larger patterns in the development of higher education (see M. J.…”

“…In doing so, we provide a counterweight to the extensive historiography on women in American psychology that began in the 1970s and has since expanded to encompass many important historical studies (e.g., Bernstein & Russo, 1974;Cameron & Hagen, 2005;Johnson & Johnston, 2010;Johnston & Johnson, 2008;O'Connell & Russo, 1980;Rutherford, Vaughn-Blount, & Ball, 2010;Scarborough & Furumoto, 1987). 1 Although much less is known about Canadian psychology's women's history-particularly the earliest generation of women psychologists-our work does build on a small number of valuable studies (e.g., de la Cour, 1987;Keates & Stam, 2009; M. J. Wright, 1992).…”

“…Finally, this period saw the founding of the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) in 1938 (Dzinas, 2000;Ferguson, 1992) and the appointment of its first female board member in 1948 (de la Cour, 1987). Keates and Stam (2009) identified the first generation of women in Canadian psychology as those who obtained their doctoral degrees prior to 1950. With the lack of a definitive start date, we argue, it is difficult to conduct a group analysis given the considerable changes in context between the time the first woman entered the discipline in Canada, and the 1950s.…”

“…One of the trends that Keates and Stam (2009) identified was that because of this later entry, the Canadian women psychologists did not appear to encounter the same institutional and educational barriers as the earlier American cohort. They suggested that Canadian women’s comparably uncontested entrance into psychology likely resulted from the already accomplished shift in the field’s orientation from primarily experimental to largely applied.…”

Heterarchical social organizations and relational models: Understanding gender biases in psychological science

“…Morgan’s comment is correct in one sense: women have had a considerable impact on the evolution of psychological science (Bohan, 1992; Furumoto & Scarborough, 1986; Gurevich, 2001; Handrick, 1948; Keates & Stam, 2009; Scarborough & Furumoto, 1987; Stevens & Gardner, 1982; Unger, 2001). The new research topics that women began investigating (e.g., educational and child psychology; Rossiter, 1974) reinforced and opened up areas of inquiry that advanced the sciences and changed the structure of academia.…”